Overview

Between Canal St. and Chambers St. the tracks split and cross at a grade separation, with the express tracks to Brooklyn via Chambers Street station on the west side and the local tracks to the stub-end World Trade Center center on the east side. An interesting remnant of planning for the IND Second System is visible from the front of a southbound local train: a bellmouth in the tunnel heading to the left (east), presumably to follow Worth Street to South 4th St., Brooklyn. IND Second System

Chambers Street/World Trade Center. Opened 9/10/1932. This large station complex is really two stations in one connected by an upper mezzanine. For purposes of this article, the express tracks which continue to Brooklyn will be said to stop at "Chambers Street," while the local tracks which terminate here will be said to stop at "World Trade Center" station.

The Chambers Street Station is to the northwest and has two tracks with a single island platform. The tile band is dark purple with black borders and no name tablet. At the south end the tracks begin to descend and they will actually pass under the World Trade Center terminal station. A mezzanine above provides access to the World Trade Center portion of the station as well as to the Brooklyn-bound IRT.

The World Trade Center terminal station has the same tile color scheme as the Chambers St. station. New wall tile has been put up here, forever covering over the old tile which indicated a secondary name of "H and M", for the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (now PATH). One of the photos below shows a part of the unrenovated tile showing the "H and M" name. This station has two tracks with bumper blocks at the south end, and one island platform. An old side platform on the western side has been fenced off to be outside the fare control and provides access from the World Trade Center to the mezzanine above the Chambers Street portion of the station. The exit at the south end of this platform is at platform level and leads directly into the World Trade Center via a short ramp. A north exit is one flight up to a mezzanine, then another flight to the street. Due to the convoluted shape of the mezzanine's fare control area, the transfer from the World Trade Center station to the IRT at Park Place requires going up to the mezzanine, down to the Chambers Street station platform, up to the mezzanine again, and then down to the Park Place station. This is apparently not a very frequent transfer and access to the IRT is also available at the next station, Broadway/Nassau-Fulton Street.

Some relative depths of stations in the World Trade Center complex are as follows, +/- 10 feet.